LIBERALS AND LABOUR

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16486, 27 February 1914, Page 8

LIBERALS AND LABOUR

MR J. M’COMBS’S OPINION. ONE PLANK IN THE BARGAIN. Proportional representation is the price that Mr J. M’Combs fixes in any bargaining between Liberalism and Labour before the next general election, and he had a few words to say last night at Woolston on the subject. One man in eighty, Mr M’Combs remarked, could not hope to do much in a single session, and shortly New Zealand would have to face another general election, ■ There wy only one point on which the progressive parties of New Zealand agreed, but it was a good point—to oust Massey. In the process the Social Democratic Party could not afford to lose its identity. Both parties must be reasonable, and he sincerely hoped that the Liberals would be reasonable in the matter. They should certainly agree to this—that if they were returned to power with the help of the votes of the Social Democracy of the country, they would immediately place on the Statute book a more scientific method of creating a representative chamber than existed at present, and make a law giving proportional representation. Then each party would get the representation it was entitled to.

“ I think that ought to he one plank in the bargain,” said Mr M’Corabs, “if we have to make a bargain with the Liberal Party. I think it only, a reasonable proposition that the Liberal Party should agree to a measure which will ensure the representation that each party, is entitled to.” Leading statesmen in England, he added, favoured the principle of, proportional representation, and it could result in nothing but good in New Zealand.